Omaha Before Big Omaha kicked off last Thursday and Friday, our streaming media partner Quadrant5 hosted a morning video show to give our live stream audience a different look at the event. Over four segments, the show featured speakers, attendees, artists, sponsors and partners—individuals who annually have a hand in making the event a success. Quadrant5's Christopher New anchored the … read more

Omaha To end the first full-day of Big Omaha on Thursday, four speakers stuck around for an audience Q&A. Megan Casey of Pack, Anil Dash of ThinkUp, Tony Conrad of about.me, and Ben Milne of Dwolla. The group used their personal experiences to respond to questions on their failures in the workplace, personality traits they're forced to fight and the pains of public speaking. Making mistakes … read more

Omaha "What if we were to stop putting our companies first?" asked Micah Baldwin at Big Omaha Friday afternoon. "Right now all of your stomachs turned. 'But we’re from the Midwest. That’s what we do.'" But what if we stopped thinking our startups were us? What if the one thing we’ve been told – the harder you work, the better – is wrong?  read more

Omaha Gentry Underwood is trying to redefine the way smartphone users interact with their email. “We want to build the best email experience in the world for as many people as we can,” he said. Since the Mailbox founder spoke at Thinc Iowa last October, he says the last seven months have been "an absolute whirlwind." On Friday, he closed out Big Omaha with a "fireside chat" with emcee Antonio Neves. … read more

Omaha Noah Kagan calls 2012 his “year of failure,” and came to Big Omaha with tips for entrepreneurs who may be a little burned out. His advice? Don’t focus on the money, or even the business. Focus on you. For Kagan, there are three things that control his happiness: wealth, health and love. Wealth "I am the happiest when I'm doing what I want and I’m having fun," he said. When he only focuses on money … read more

Omaha Dave McClure started his Big Omaha talk warning it would offend some people. He was right. His focus was on the idea that "everything sucks and nobody notices," but it ended up lost amid potentially offensive exchanges and an abundance of cursing, which quickly sparked a conversation on Twitter. Beyond that, he told the crowd there are … read more

Omaha As the founder of If We Ran the World and Make Love Not Porn, Cindy Gallop is taking steps to tackle the absence of honest conversation in society about sex. At Big Omaha this afternoon, she described the business model of Make Love Not Porn as shared values combined with shared action to create shared profit. The difference from mainstream porn? All of the site's content is user-generated and depicts … read more

Omaha By now, Big Omaha attendees have been in and out of their seat several dozen times, and some may be wondering: what gives with giving each speaker a standing ovation before they begin? Credit David Hauser of Grasshopper, who started the tradition when he spoke at the second Big Omaha in 2010. "I remember sitting there next to the tech table, with my mic on, going over my notes and … read more